224 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Decbubbb 14, 1905. 



use for summer bedding. The managers 

 of the Chicago parks seem to be far 

 more progressive in this respect than our 

 eastern men. 



On the whole the present and future 

 for the canna is very encouraging. The 

 family has made tremendous strides in 

 the past few years, and is still improv- 

 ing and endearing itself in the hearts 

 of the people. Antoine Wintzer. 



A REMINISCENCE. 



John Poehlmann was in a reminiscent 

 mood the other day and spoke interest- 

 ingly of the early days of the cut flower 

 industry in Chicago. It was fifteen years 

 ago that August and John joined hands 

 with Adolph Poehlmann, who was al- 

 ready in the greenhouse business at Mor- 

 ton Grove. It was a typical place for 

 those days, small, low, detached houses 

 but at that time contained something like 

 25,000 square feet of glass, which was 

 pretty fair for that time. Then as now 

 John Poehlmann had charge of the sell- 

 ing end of the business. For the first 

 three or four years he came to Chicago 



Clark street store was there and it was 

 in the basement at this address that 

 Poehlmann Bros, first had a city store. 

 At this time the stock was shipped in 

 by train in the , evening and Mr. Poehl- 

 mann took it to the store and sorted it 

 for next day's business, then making 

 daily rounds with a wagon. A little 

 later a down town address was secured 

 and the wagon dispensed with. By that 

 time there were enough wholesale estab- 

 lishments so that the trade had become 

 well accustomed to coming to the vicinity 

 of "Wabash and Randolph for its supplies 

 and the Poehlmann establishment had 

 grown until it was no longer possible to 

 carry the product about the city. As 

 years have passed the greenhouses have 

 grown and with them the importance of 

 the city salesroom. 



WITH THE GROWERS. 



Wietor Bros., Chicago. 



Wietor Bros, have had exceptionally 

 good results in the growing department 

 this season. Their big range of glass at 



Fancy Basket of Primulas and Adiantum. 



three times a week, usually with a horse 

 and wagon but sometimes, when cuts were 

 light, bringing the product in a basket 

 on his arm. He visited on each trip a 

 dozen or fifteen of the leading flo^yer 

 stores, including those on the west side 

 and on the south side as far as the Art 

 Floral Co. place at Thirty-ninth street. 

 It was a long day's journey and Mr. 

 Poehlmann frequently tied the horse at 

 some convenient place and made a few 

 calls by street car, carrying his stock in 

 a basket. This for the purpose of sav- 

 ing the horse. He always arranged to 

 have some stock for the last customer, 

 but frequently had to retrace his steps to 



sell out. 



Not many of the old stores are in 

 existence now, but Wittbold's North 



Rogers Park is always kept up in first- 

 class shape, but it looks rather better this 

 year than usual. This is especially true 

 of the Beauty houses, which number 

 nearly a score. It would be hard to im- 

 prove on the length and stiffness of stem 

 and the foliage speaks for perfect health. 

 Liberty and Richmond are a feature of 

 the establishment. At the city store N. 

 J. Wietor says that there is little differ- 

 ence in the selling qualities of these 

 roses, but at the greenhouses Henry Wie- 

 tor thinks Richmond likely to have a 

 better blooming record at the end of 

 the season. The ground shoots are now 

 beginning to appear in quantity and 

 speak for some splendid flowers. The 

 tea roses are also in good shape. 

 Not a large list of varieties of carna- 



tions is grown here, it being the prefer- 

 ence to grow a few sorts in quantity. 

 The results this season have been above 

 the average and the cuts have been ob- 

 tainable when wanted. 



Chrysanthemums are grown in quan- 

 tity, but are all cut except a few Merry 

 Christmas, which will hold on until close 

 to the first of the year. A large busi- 

 ness is now being done in chrysanthe- 

 mum stock plants and preparations are 

 being made for propagating extensively. 

 The firm has a very large trade in rose 

 plants and carnation and chrysanthemum 

 cuttings. 



THE READERS' CORNER. 



Painting the Pipes. 



I noticed a recent paragraph in the 

 Review where it is advised that radiat- 

 ing pipes in greenhouses be not painted. 

 I say paint 'em. For why? Because it 

 pays. When we first put in our present 

 steam pipes, probably ten years ago, 

 they were not j)ainted. After about four 

 yeara those that were not exposed to 

 sun and air rusted badly, some having 

 to be renewed. I came to the conclu- 

 sion that it would pay to paint the pipes, 

 and those that were sound are as good as 

 ever, and I am convinced that if painted 

 every second year they will last indefi- 

 nitely. The painting does not interfere 

 with the radiation. Apparently any 

 pipes that are exposed for appearance 

 sake can be painted with white paint, 

 those under the benches red. Here is 

 our formula: Take dry mineral red, 

 which can be bought for about 2% 

 cents to 3 cents a pound. Fifty pounds 

 will do a lot of work. Mix it with raw 

 linseed oil and add a little turpentine 

 to it. Have it about as thick as ordi- 

 nary paint. Apply with an old brush in 

 the summer time when emptying the 

 benches. Brush and scrape off all rust 

 first. There is nothing injurious to 

 plants in this paint. Black asphaltum 

 or anything of that nature should never 

 be applied, but we paint all iron work 

 and our boilers with it. Experience is 

 what talks and we should all help each 

 other when we can by exchanging expe- 

 riences. F. J. Fillmore. 



This painting the pipes is a subject 

 that I have watched closely for years, 

 with the result that all pipes we handle 

 are painted as fast as we can get at 

 them, or before we put them in. Just 

 recently we cleaned and painted a lino 

 of 1-inch pipe in a propagating house, 

 which was put in just one year ago, and 

 it was more than half corroded because 

 we neglected to paint it, and the con- 

 stant syringing caused it to rust badly. 

 I believe such rusty pipes do not give 

 off as much heat as clean painted ones, 

 to say nothing about durability and ap- 

 pearance. We use lamp black and lin- 

 seed oil, or Dixon's graphite thinned is 

 good. We never had any damage to 

 stock, even when painted while hot. 



Another point that would be well to 

 mention is the enormous loss to florists 

 caused by poorly cared for boiler set- 

 tings, cracked walls and loose castings 

 and linings, thus allowing cold air to 

 creep through to chill the boiler, reduce 

 draft and lower the general efficiency 

 often twenty-five to fifty per cent. Few 

 realize the importance of this. A boiler 

 setting when in use should be candled 

 regularly ; that is, gone over with a burn- 

 ing candle slowly, and wherever a crack 



